Category Archives: Books

Irena Macri might seem to be an unlikely advocate for the paleo diet. Based on the idea that humans are best suited to eating what their Paleolithic (i.e., caveman) ancestors ate—berries, nuts, meat; not dairy, grains, and salt—the culinary approach is often associated with diehard evangelists and intense CrossFit devotees. Macri is the first to admit that “I am not dogmatic and I don’t really see [paleo] as a diet.” She takes a more casual approach.

Macri’s accessibility may partly explain the strong sales of her cookbook Eat Drink Paleo. In 2011, the Australian foodie started a blog of the same name, which she used to share original recipes and musings on eating like a hunter-gatherer. After much planning, marketing, and, of course, cooking, Macri self-published the cookbook in 2013. Her accessible tone and the book’s professional presentation helped sell thousands of copies, and now Penguin has grabbed it up, along with Macri’s follow-up.

“There is a time in every food blogger’s life when [he or she] plays around with the idea of creating a cookbook—self-published or through a traditional publisher,” Macri says. “It’s a bit of a holy grail of food blogging, really.”

For Macri, writing a cookbook made particular sense. A year after the blog’s launch, she had attracted a dedicated audience of about 40,000 monthly visitors, and her new recipes drew enthusiasm from the growing paleo community. She began bringing in a steady if small income through sales of ads on her site, as well as affiliate marketing, and she imagined that a book might provide a more direct stream of revenue.

Macri saw a gap in the Australian market for the type of high-quality cookbook she envisioned. “I wanted to create something that was much better than what was on offer,” she says. Even if it was self-published, she wanted the book to be professionally edited and designed, with original photography of actual meals.

“Sometimes when self-publishing, there might not be a budget to pay professional designers to help you bring your book to life,” says Carla Hackett, a book designer and friend whom Macri would tap for the book’s layout. “Having a professional and unique design helped Irena’s book gain popularity and, of course, can only help sales.”

Because of budget constraints, Macri turned to her readers for help, launching a campaign through the Australian crowdfunding site Pozible. The campaign struck a chord with readers. Lasting 35 days, it drew more than 300 backers pledging 13,000 AUD.

With funding in hand, Macri set to work planning the book. She continued to blog at the same pace she had and also worked part-time at a gallery. Over the course of about two months, she laid out the structure of the book, the format of the chapters, the major topics, and the types of recipes to include. “I was living in spreadsheets and scribbling Post-it notes everywhere,” she says.

Soon, Macri added pots and pans to the mix. She had a handful of recipes that had been popular on the blog that she knew would need to be included in the book. But beyond that she created brand-new ideas, testing them in the kitchen, “making sure I covered many different key ingredients and cuisines,” and holding on to the best ones.

As the recipes moved from scribbled notebook pages to final documents, Macri got to work on the book’s layout. She tapped Hackett, who was in the midst of launching her own hand-lettering business in Melbourne, to devise the look of the project. “I flew her over to Sydney for about 10 days and we basically got into this amazing collaborative frenzy,” Macri says.

They gathered a bevy of food-styling props, painted chalkboards, and bought “an astronomically large amount of food.” They cooked, shot images, cleaned, then repeated, getting 10–15 dishes each day for a week, inviting friends over for nightly dinner parties to feast on the huge volume of food. (A time-lapse video of Macri and Hackett creating the book’s cover can be viewed here.)

“I put together some style references for Carla and she had some strong concepts in mind that would reflect my brand, but then we brainstormed a lot of it on the spot,” Macri says. “My partner built a crane to suspend the camera over the table so I could have these amazing top angles—it was all very DIY.”

“She really wanted it to feel very real, genuine, and approachable,” Hackett says. “It really was a collaboration in the true sense of the word, with Irena and I being on the same page from the beginning.”

Macri conceived Eat Drink Paleo as an e-book, having considered the added costs and challenges print could present, especially for an art-heavy book. But she still created the material “as if there would be a printed book in the future”—ensuring all art was produced in high-resolution, it got a flexible design, and so on. Once the art was complete, Macri finalized the recipes and chapter introductions, preparing the marketing and promotional material as Hackett returned to Melbourne and completed the designs and layout, processing the photos using Lightroom and Photoshop.

Editor Jodie McLeod worked quickly with the text, reading over the pages, editing and proofing them. In the week or two ahead of publication, Macri met with Hackett at her studio and put the finishing touches on the design. “I even got into the InDesign to help with laying out the pages as Carla was making hand-drawn illustrations,” she says.

Release and Reception

Throughout all of the steps of funding, photographing, and finalizing the book, Macri kept her readers updated through her blog and social media. She found that this created a healthy amount of buzz as readers offered support and comments and shared the updates with their own friends and family. By the time the book actually came out, “I had a line of readers wanting to purchase it,” Macri says.

To connect with readers beyond her core audience, Macri also drafted a press release, which she sent out to magazines, newspapers, food and wellness bloggers, and others in the paleo community. She sent free copies of the printed book or e-book to those who might review it (without obliging them to do so), and submitted guest posts and recipes to other blogs. She used Google Ads and giveaways, as well as a launch party to which she invited guests known well among paleo enthusiasts. “I basically did anything and everything you can think of,” Macri says. The effort paid off. Within its first weeks, the book’s sales climbed.

After Eat Drink Paleo’s first month as an e-book, with hundreds of copies selling weekly, Macri felt confident that it was a good time to try it in print form. Hackett repurposed the master file for the slightly different dimensions of a print book, and Macri created a few short print runs, covering the up-front costs herself. She found an affordable and high-quality printing house in Germany that would turn around runs of a few thousand books, printing 2,000, which sold out quickly, then another 3,000 books.

Eat Drink Paleo was hardly the first book on the subject. But Macri’s efforts to come up with creative, original recipes and package them in an eye-catching, professional layout set it apart from many other cookbooks that “regurgitate the same kind of recipes over and over again, repurposing and adapting the classics,” as she puts it.

The book also stood apart in its more accessible tone. While the paleo market is full of doctrinaire voices offering commandments pertaining to what one must and must not eat, Macri emphasizes moderation.

Penguin Picks It Up

Eat Drink Paleo moved about 8,000 copies, and soon began catching the attention of major publishing houses, which reached out to Macri about releasing the book with them. As she was making good money on sales and happy with the professional quality of her self-published book, Macri was in no rush to sign on with one of the big houses. But, about a year and a half after the book’s release, as Macri began to plan a follow-up, Penguin sent her an email about working together.

“I really jumped to my feet,” Macri says. “For starters, we’re talking about Penguin, who publish some of my food idols. Secondly, they were asking about a new book and I have always wanted to do at least one book through a traditional publisher.”

After an initial meeting at which the publisher expressed interest not only in Eat Drink Paleo, but her next book as well, negotiations deepened and Macri began seriously considering the offer. On the one hand, Penguin offered extensive distribution and a marketing apparatus that could help spread the word beyond Macri’s own paleo network. On the other hand, she was concerned about re-releasing a book that had already done well, not to mention giving up the sole rights to the book.

“I could no longer sell it myself, which after having so much control over it was very hard to do,” Macri says. She admits that the decision was a difficult one, but the promise of “reaching so many more people” convinced her it was worth moving to a big publisher. In short order, her instincts proved sound, as Penguin generated major publicity and distribution with Penguin Books UK and the Switzerland-based German-language publisher AT Verlag. “Hopefully it will soon get picked up by other countries as well,” Macri says.

In addition to riding the continued success of Eat Drink Paleo, Macri has now jumped into work on her second book, this time collaborating closely with the Penguin team.

To others considering self-publishing, Macri insists that success is possible as long as they create “a very good product.” To do that, as she found, an author first needs, “great content, a solid market, some money, and lots of hard work. If you have that, go for it. You never know where that will lead you.”

Soon-to-be mom Jessica Biel swears by it and Megan Fox is also a follower. With such celebs on the Paleo Diet, the eating plan that is intended to mimic the way our paleolithic ancestors ate, is more popular than ever. And now, its secrets are being revealed in a new cookbook by Paleo Diet founder Dr. Loren Cordain.

“Our genes haven’t changed a lot in the last 40 or 50 thousand years,” Cordain said today on “Good Morning America.” “So we do quite well on the foods that we’re genetically adapted to.”

The idea behind Paleo is to eat foods that our ancestors ate tens of thousands of years ago. Cordain claims you’ll stay in shape and protect yourself better from heart disease and diabetes. He even says following the diet can even help reduce or eliminate acne.

But it’s not an easy lifestyle. You can eat only grass-fed meat, fish, fruits and veggies, staying away from processed foods, sugar, wheat, grains and dairy.

A little-known secret, though? Cordain recommends following the diet at least 85 percent of the time, allowing for some cheats.

Some easy swaps are veggie chips in place of potato chips or nuts instead of granola in a trail mix.

But not everyone’s sold on the diet.

“The downfall is missing out on certain foods that many nutrition experts, including myself, feel are important to have in one’s diet, such as legumes that are rich in fiber and other good nutrients,” nutritionist Rachel Beller, author of “Eat To Lose, Eat To Win,” said on “GMA.”

Cordain responded to that criticism, though, by saying, “When we eliminate those, what happens is all of the other foods fill in and make the diet much healthier and nutrient dense.”

Secret to keep you from falling off the Paleo Diet? – Breakfast!
Many people start on the Paleo Diet every day only to fall off the program within a week. Why? You skip breakfast and rush out of the house only to find yourself starving shortly thereafter. It’s the quick stop for tea or coffee when our bodies are screaming for something to eat that does us in. The only thing typically available with your coffee order is a sugary processed muffin that throws us off our diet in a flash. Paleo Diet Smoothie recipes deliver a long list of delicious quick Paleo Diet breakfast options you can make at home in less than five minutes. Getting your Paleo breakfast out of the way first thing in the morning ensures you will stay on track for the rest of the day.

Many people are interested in experimenting with Raw food, but don’t know where to start. Others would like to gradually work more Raw foods into their diet. And some people would like to introduce Raw foods to their spouse or family in a way that is easy, flexible, and fun.

In this unique book, Raw vegan chef Kristen Suzanne presents “transitional” recipes designed to help people experiment or migrate gradually toward the healthy Raw food diet, using techniques such as combining raw and cooked elements in the same dish, or “sneaking” Raw food into family meals. By introducing more Raw foods gradually, people’s palates become accustomed to the delicious and unique textures and flavor profiles that are common in Raw cuisine.

Considering The World We Live In… Is It Any Surprise That The Paleo Diet Has Taken The World By Storm???
The Paleo diet is the newest and most innovative development in dietary science.
And yet in MANY ways, this “innovative” diet is paradoxically a return to traditional eating; it’s based on the way human beings ate even before the rise of agriculture, in the days when most of us subsisted on what grew freely.
The Paleo diet isn’t just a great way to lose weight.
It’s also a great way to ensure a proper balance of nutrients, for improved:
✔ Stamina
✔ Eyesight
✔ Mental health
✔ Energy
✔ Athletic performance
✔ Cardiovascular health
✔ Libido
✔ Intelligence and mental performance
✔ Happiness
There’s only one downside:
Following the Paleo Diet properly, for most people, is EXPENSIVE!
Because lets face it: the kinds of foods the Paleo diet recommends are not the kinds of things you can just buy and pop in the microwave.
Most of them require shopping at specialty food stores, or at least taking a trip to your grocery store’s more exotic sections.
What all this adds up to is this:
For most people, following the Paleo diet means eating out at restaurants that specialize in paleo diet dishes, or at best buying the Paleo diet branded goods at the grocery store, which can often cost a small fortune.
So how can we make these meals at home without spending a ton of money?
Introducing my Paleo Recipe eBook Caveman Paleo Recipes
Ever since I started on the Paleo diet myself, I’ve been working on different recipes, trying out different dishes, coming up with different ways of eating that:
✔ Conform 100% to Paleo diet requirements
✔ Have Nutritional Information
✔ Are SIMPLE to prepare
✔ Are affordable
✔ Taste GREAT!
Caveman Paleo Recipes is a product I’ve been working on for a LONG time, all of the recipes i eat day in day out are here.
Consisting of over 100 recipes, you’ll find Paleo diet recipes for almost everything:
Snacks
Soups
Salads
Meat dishes
Beverages
Omelettes
Desserts
And, of course, all of these recipes will be made with 100% Paleo-approved ingredients, including:
Poultry
Fish
Lean meats
Fruit
Beans
A wide array of veggies, including lentils, beans, lettuce, tomato, and other top-quality “super foods.”
If you’re on the Paleo diet, you’re probably very familiar with these ingredients.
The only difference with these recipes is, I make them taste GREAT… For a price you can afford!
Because the truth of the matter is this…… Flavor has NOTHING to do with ‘empty calories,’ and everything to do with mixing different items so that they complement each other.
If you know how to do that, even the lowest calorie dish can taste just like heaven.
And in Caveman Paleo Recipes, I’m going to show you how to do just that, with more than 100 delicious, nutritious, healthy dishes that’ll leave you wondering how eating right could taste so great!

For the first time, here’s a collection of juice recipes – over 275 – based on the latest nutritional discoveries. If you have an illness – or want to avoid one – we have a juice recipe to fight it. So while you’re enjoying a delicious glass of fresh juice, now you can also target your health concerns whether it’s weight loss, anti-aging, more energy, better sex, or fighting diseases such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and many more!

I wish I started juicing decades ago and started all my friends and family as well! Here are the eye-opening reasons why!

I’m very healthy and always have been. I don’t eat a lot of junk food, I’m not overweight, and I exercise daily – I’m even a Pilates instructor (check me out at PilatesLessons.org)! But there’s just one problem. I don’t eat all the fruits and veggies I’m supposed to eat every day. Who does? I seriously don’t think that I EVER ate the minimum daily requirement of fresh fruits and veggies!
From The Desk of Bob Hannum (penname: Jan Gilbert)

My name is Nikki Young, author of the Paleo Cookbooks. Before I introduce you to my delicious paleo recipes, I want to tell you straight off the bat that the paleo diet is not a diet designed by diet doctors, faddists, or nutritionists; it is a diet designed by nature. It is not the latest weight loss program or celebrity diet that leaves you craving sugar-laden foods.
The paleo diet is the diet the human body is supposed to follow, and as such, all the positive results gained from following the paleo foundations seamlessly fall into place:

The PaleoHacks Cookbook is for ANYONE who is serious about THRIVING on the Paleo Diet – For Life!

Yes, the recipes in this book are universally healthy and whether you are a stay-at-home Mother, an elite athlete or a busy executive.

Remember: When you consume foods we as humans have evolved to eat and you cut out the “modern” foods that don’t mix with our genes and DNA…

You trigger a wave of rejuvenation throughout your body – one that’s visible on your midsection, your muscle tone, skin, hair, face and much more.

This is just one reason why so many people from all walks of life are turning to the Paleo diet – because it produces results without the oppressive, tasteless foods and portion or calorie control you find on most diets.

We went on a mission to create the one cookbook that would cover it all. With 350 recipes and counting, you will never run out of ideas and will always have something healthy and delicious at your fingertips.

We took great care to include every category of food possible, while at the same time eliminating all grains, legumes, vegetable oils, added sugar and dairy.

Our goal, first and foremost, is to reach as many people as possible to help them reclaim their health. The paleo diet is the perfect way to do that as it is the diet that we, as humans, have been eating for over 2 million years and enjoyed great health. Only until the past 100 or so years have food manufacturing practices and downright greed began to cause such major problems in the health of the general public.

Paleovalley, the company who publishes the 1000 Paleo Recipes collection, is committed to helping reverse the current trend of deteriorating health and helping people to rediscover how they should be eating.